Well, you found one, and it's time to pounce. Call on us for marketing collateral development (brochures, flyers, direct mail), writing and editing services, design, layout, advertising, public relations. (Cats optional.)

They don't call it "clawing" your way to the top for nothing. But fear not... We offer everything your business needs on this front -- search engine optimization (SEO), social media, video marketing, reputation development / management. (Alpha cat training.)

"Leap and the net will appear" might be good advice for those with nine lives, but your business may have but *one*. Call us to learn about business plan development, proposal strategies, sales automation, and consulting. (Target your prey.)

If so, then welcome. :-) We're usually working on client projects, but we do like to give back when we can, usually in the form of free advice (which there is a ton of on this web site). (The search box is your laser pointer to information.)

As many of my clients and colleagues know, I've just returned from a month-long trek through Northern India. While this was a holiday, I wanted to provide readers here with a bit of opinion about India and web development. Quite commonly, I receive solicitations from Indian web development companies asking me to outsource work to them. As may be expected, the rates are usually the most attractive aspect of such scenarios, usually constituting the main selling point.

This article is meant for business owners as an intro-level primer on how to envision a web design that accomplishes two oft-desired goals: (1) it looks professional (attractive, mobile-friendly, etc.), and (2) it's also simple / easy to maintain. There are many ways to envision any web site, of course. But, again, if you're interested in one that looks great and is extremely easy to maintain (which often translates into $$$ savings in terms of administration and configuration), then this may interest you.

Somewhere on this site or maybe on a personal blog somewhere, I have stories about taking nearly my entire corporate job back in the early 1990s and secretly reducing it down to a single macro. Efficiency has always been a particular fascination of mine and, no matter how many new clients I get, I've never encountered a client that couldn't benefit from efficiency improvements. As a field of specialty, this type of thing was a pretty big deal in the 1990s, with entire management companies springing up to address this issue. It's seemed to have waned a bit, since then, for various reasons. But, I think, in general, efficiency is probably worth revisiting now for many of the same reasons it was back then.

One thing that's sure to pop out at anyone viewing the Tessellate template (for Joomla web sites) is the subtle animation in the background. If you're into HTML (which, oddly, fewer and fewer people are these days thanks to so many tools out there that do the HTML for you), you may wonder how such animations are accomplished.

Here's something business owners may not have considered: Do you own a business with clients of your own that sometimes need web development and/or marketing assistance? If so, why not consider forming a strategic partnership with a web development agency like Marketing Portland? I'd like to cover how this could represent a true "Win-Win-Win" scenario -- for us, for your business, and for the clients. (I'm also posting this in my "Business Development" blog because it's a pretty interesting BD idea for many businesses types, and a revenue-generating idea for others.

Today at Marketing Portland, we would like to provide some pointers for business professionals who are wondering if their web sites are too old. After all, design and tech trends change regularly, and keeping on top of such changes can send messages to potential customers (positive messages if you do, negative if you do not). Those messages are often understated, of course, but people do pick up on these things.

Marketing Portland is back this week from "Techmanity," a conference held in Silicon Valley for "innovators who imagine technology not just for profit but to improve the human condition." I thought I'd include a brief write-up of some highlights here, mainly by listing some of the personalities who presented during the sessions. I caught most of the sessions offered, but missed a few as I was browsing the small exhibition of startup businesses in the convention center lobby.

Need a New Web Site? Pick Your Plan Now

Industry Web Site Best Practice Guides

We rarely hold back when it comes to sharing opinions about what works and what doesn't on various industry web sites. So, if you're interested in what we may think about YOUR industry, and what makes for a great web site in that niche, see if we've covered your specialty below. And, if not, let us know and maybe we'll devote a post to it!

Knowledge Silos and Intranets

Achieving Proposal Success

While formal proposals are commonplace in the business world, how many have you seen? How do you know where the bar is in terms of what you're up against? How well do your company's proposals measure up against your competition? How might your success rate be improved by making improvements to your proposals? Interested in gaining the opinion of someone who's done 700+ B2B proposals?

CMSs? OMG!

Design Themes for CMSs

What are web site themes? Can you use them? Should you use them? This article gives an explanation of what themes are and why you might want to use one (or not use one). This is a great first article to read if you're thinking about getting a completely new web site, or even your very first web site!